(a plot plan)
winter leafless
rising up between
walls, a triangle
dark angles where
thick branches are
tiers at mid-growth
when up at the tips
one bud has split
one day to the next
its bursting burst
12 April 2000: chestnut tree in the courtyard
over lapse, a hole
this hollowed-out
hole of hollowness
abyss of we forgot
its facts sucked out
and as these tracks
time traces then
effaces in the act
of leaving in or out
at roadworks, past
20 April 2000: Potsdamer Platz
occupied by lines
confined, a corner
of this dam, a plot
of lines lined up
stands out on green
of a block of shade
a colony surveyed
along its borders
caught, a closed-off
dream, enclosure
30 April 2000: Laubenkolonie,
working men's gardens of Spandauer Damm
walled up, walled in
the twisting vine
virgin over canes
veils lean-to glass
a half-abandoned
armchair strains
towards the street
refracted, image
of outwear so true
it wears it through
9 May 2000: Potsdam. Villa for sale
just a shout, an SOS
to the open street
with begging hands
in a burst of anger
it aspires, it cares
it fires and flares
an impetus towards
nod to the least lack
taken in unheard
it deafens, cuts out
29 May 2000: ‘Der Rufer', (The Shouter)
Statue by Gerhard Marcks. Strasse des 17. Juni
motif of symmetry
in the long views
spread of the city
today monumental
axis and unbending
squared-off showy
shackles, stuccoes
triumphal avenue
for the triumph of
sweet scent of lime
18 June 2000: Karl Marx Allee
high in the chaos
what a fresh spurt
a streaming towards
the running foam
of cliffs, the slope
to cross a bridge
the mist of its fall
evaporating moist
the overheated air
on sunstroke street
3 July 2000: Viktoria Park waterfall
chanted, beating
in our bodies, sounds
the deep ones, beat
inside the motion
of repeating, marked
with a pulsation
doing and redoing
this, aspire desire
the world, a plan
that faltered oddly
8 July 2000: Love Parade. Tiergarten
distracted to see
as the eye, briefly
veering to the west
near to the window
a whole sky in grey
a sparkle of plane
when flying to meet
it rising from here
a goose lumbers up
beating slow air
11 August 2000: through the study window
arches rose window
portico, a ruin left
cleared out apart
from a pigeon, shit
the whitened lines
of destination now
have wandered off
derailed, a station
dead in its tracks
a pointless terminus
13 August 2000: Porticus Anhalter Bahnhof
Portico, old Anhalt station
shaken from the top
into flight, a crow
the bell flown off
when leaves as well
fly off away apart
from a tree in leaf
already yellowing
so soon the autumn
evening six o'clock
at the peal of bells
15 October 2000: Haus der Kulturen
der Welt. The bells
frail in this light
to shrink lead-grey
monotonous away
an after-rain grey
on uneven stones
the summoned street
from just this past
summer, milky light
dried up by absence
nothing, no relief
28 October 2000: in the streets
of Charlottenburg
glint of crystal
night, the cupola
aflame with gold
haunted ever after
a sickness, restless
history chews over
while at a signal
for the march to go
or even totter, such
a gradual advance
9 November 2000: anti-racist demonstration
in front of the synagogue. Oranienburgerstrasse
night screen dark
exhausted journey
dings itself along
the sides of streets
the city offered up
banal in snapshots
at the turn, faces
fading, mid-night
even of the lights
as they blink out
13 December 2000: coming back in the Pankow tram
not much in season
these cherry-trees
seen aligned along
a two-line bridge
bouquet, the blooms
too far out too soon
and frozen freeze
besides the flakes
degreeless brink
a withered 0 of cold
16 December 2000: 79 cherry trees in bloom
at the bottom of Bösebrücke. Norwegerstrasse
in posters life
pasted in delight
so easily, so sweet
as a train winds by
to stop and change
then from a subway
come languid sounds
like an accordion
the haunting voice
of only loneliness
10 January 2001: Russian busker at
Heidelbergerplatz tube station
a dust-grey powder
probably mineral
in skin-fine layers
granular the grains
spread with a hard
hiss of tarmac or
the cobbles, frost-
foot rubs on, thrown
our wits scattered
after the gritter
24 January 2001: Storkwinkel
in snowy weather
late from the east
snow still covers
markings, ground
the lanes to follow
blind and streets
erased, a signal
where to turn, a dial
wiped of hours, free
nor against the law
to think of summer
25 March 2001: change to summer time.
Snowstorm, Rathenauplatz
Translation: 2013, Susan Wicks